Michigan

A Michigan farmer describes the Michigan state Atty. Gen.'s latest attack against his family. The state wants to define the pigs he raises as "invasive species" and prohibit him from doing business. This is the latest from the busy bodies who seek nothing but control and to further limit the freedom of family farms.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder announced Friday that the state will take over the operations of Detroit's city government due to its long-standing financial problems. The takeover is short of a formal bankruptcy, but it will include appointing an emergency manager who would have many of the same powers as a bankruptcy judge. It could mean throwing out contracts with public employee unions and vendors that the city can't afford, and could lead to further cutbacks in already depleted city services.

The 0.2-mil property tax for the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) passed by a huge margin in Metro Detroit's primary election. It will cost taxpayers with a homeowner's market value of $200,000 and a taxable value of $100,000 an additional $20 annually.

GRAND RAPIDS -- School district leaders today conceded that a man who walked into Aberdeen Elementary to vote on Tuesday -- with an openly visible handgun holstered to his waist -- did not violate the law.

“Long thought to be a relic of the 19th century, debtors’ prisons are still alive and well in Michigan,” Kary Moss, executive director of the Michigan ACLU, said in a press release. “Jailing our clients because they are poor is not only unconstitutional, it’s unconscionable and a shameful waste of resources.”

It just doesn't get more ridiculous than this. Julie Bass of Oak Park, Michigan -- a mother of 6, law-abiding citizen, and gardener -- is facing 93 days in jail after being charged with a misdemeanor. Her crime? Planting a vegetable garden in the front yard.

"That's not what we want to see in a front yard," said Oak Park City Planner Kevin Rulkowski.

Why? The city is pointing to a code that says a front yard has to have suitable, live, plant material. The big question is what's "suitable?"

"If you look at the definition of what suitable is in Webster's dictionary, it will say common. So, if you look around and you look in any other community, what's common to a front yard is a nice, grass yard with beautiful trees and bushes and flowers," the city bureaucrat said.